Chapter I: That this Westerne discoverie will be greately for

thinlargemente of the gospell of Christe, whereunto the princes of the Refourmed Relligion are chefely bounde, amongeste whome her Majestie ys principall._

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Nowe the meanes to sende suche as shall labour effectually in this busines ys, by plantinge one or tuoo colonies of our nation upon that fyrme, where they may remaine in safetie, and firste learne the language of the people nere adjoyninge (the gifte of tongues beinge nowe taken awaye), and by little and little acquainte themselves with their manner, and so with discretion and myldeness distill into their purged myndes the swete and lively liquor of the gospel. Otherwise for preachers to come unto them rashly with oute some suche preparation for their safetie, yt were nothinge els but to ronne to their apparaunte and certaine destruction, as yt happened unto those Spanishe ffryers, that, before any plantinge, withoute strengthe and company, landed in Fflorida, where they were miserablye massacred by the savages.

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Now yf they [Romanists], in their superstition, by means of their plantinge in those partes, have don so greate thinges in so shorte space, what may wee hope for in our true and syncere relligion, _proposinge unto ourselves in this action not filthie lucre nor vaine ostentation, as they in deede did_, but principally the gayninge of the soules of millions of those wretched people, the reducinge of them from darkenes to lighte, from falsehoodde to truthe, from dombe idolls to the lyvinge God, from the depe pitt of hell to the highest heavens.

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And this enterprise the princes of the relligion (amonge whome her Majestie ys principall) oughte the rather to take in hande, because the papistes confirme themselves and drawe other to theire side, shewinge that they are the true Catholicke churche because they have bene the onely converters of many millions of infidells to Christianttie. Yea, I myselfe have bene demannded of them, how many infidells have been by us converted? ... Yet in very deede I was not able to name any one infidell by them converted. But God, quoth I, hath his tyme for all men, whoe calleth some at the nynthe, and some at the eleventh houer. And if it please him to move the harte of her Majestie to put her helpinge hande to this godly action, she shall finde as willinge subjectes of all sortes as any other prince in all Christendome.

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